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Episode 265: Answers to Your Burning Baseball Questions
Date August 14, 2013 Summary Ben and Sam answer listener emails about baseball with clockwise bases, whether in-game managerial moves help or hurt, who pays players who get released, and more. Topics * Half-size baseballs * Baseball on ice * Extreme baseball * Paying released players * Parity and playoffs * Clockwise baseball * Mangers' in-game value Intro Episode outtake sound clip Banter * Episode 264 follow-up: Jose Iglesias' diving throw * What makes a good web gem? Email Questions * Eric: "What if baseballs were half the size?" * Steven: "My thought is this: in center field there should be a little house in which each team hires an elderly man or woman to inhabit for the game. Should there be a ground rule double the outfielder has to go to the house, knock on the door and ask said occupant for the ball back. I call this Sandlot Rules." * Emma: "My boyfriend has an idea for extreme baseball that he won't shut up about. I'm covertly writing you on the chance that you might tell him how dumb it is. Baseball on ice: everything is played normally but the players wear big spikes so as to not lose their footing. After a few innings the rink would be so roughed up from the spikes the ball would be taking crazy hops all over the place. I guess at the very least the slides would be funny. Still, this is the dumbest of dumb ideas and I'm tired of hearing about it." * Carman: "What it would be like if baseball were clockwise rather than counter clockwise, with 3rd base being 1st and 1st base being 3rd? Would it be as simple as that rule change or would the natural abundance of righties in our culture lead to a slightly different game? I don't just mean for the flipping of the defensive positions or throwing since that seems like something anyone could learn with enough reps. Would the game be slightly boosted offensively with all the right handed batters already a step closer to first base? Would there be less base stealing because of all the right handed pitchers facing first base and more balks called? Would we actually see more left handed throwing catchers?" * Brian: "If a player is DFA'd, refuses assignment, and signs with another club, who plays the player what? Mark Reynolds was just released by the Indians, if another club signs him is he still owed the entire $6 million the Indians signed him for, or does he get a pro-rated amount from Cleveland and then whatever he agrees to sign for from his new club." * Tim: "This season there is a good chance that every team in the NL with a winning record will make the playoffs. This has never happened before in the wild card era, the closest was in 1997 in the AL, and it's highly unlikely that it ever occurred in previous eras when fewer teams made the playoffs. However do you think having more teams with a shot at the playoffs is suppressing the overall win loss records for all teams, thus leading to fewer teams with winning records?" * James: "It seems to me that a lot of tactical decisions that a manager makes during a game are generally considered to be low or even negative value moves. I'm speaking of things like giving out intentional walks, ordering sacrifice bunts, hit and run plays, and other such calls from the dugout. My question to you is this: do managers add any in-game value through the plays that they call or would baseball teams perform better if the manager limited himself to simply deciding who takes the field and just let the players play." Notes * Several listeners wrote in about recent email hypothetical questions and are in disagreement about how many are genuine questions and how many are trolling. Links * Effectively Wild Episode 265: Answers to Your Burning Baseball Questions * Iglesias makes a ridiculous diving throw to retire Phegley video * The Probably Pointless Pitchout by Sam Miller Category:Email Episodes Category:Episodes